Pats Peak owners celebrate 50 years in business

Celebration held Sunday night

Wayne and Sally Patenaude, founders and owners of Pat's Peak ski area in Henniker, pose at a fireplace at the ski area Sunday night during a 50th Anniversary party for friends, family and close business associates.

(Photo by Paula Tracy)

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Wayne and Sally Patenaude, founders and owners of Pat's Peak ski area in Henniker, pose at a fireplace at the ski area Sunday night during a 50th Anniversary party for friends, family and close business associates.

(Photo by Paula Tracy)

The founding of Pats Peak can be traced to the fact that lift lines for the Mount Sunapee chairlift in the 1950s had grown to over an hour long.

Wayne Patenaude told about 200 friends, family and associates Sunday night that he got into this "risky business" in large part because he was sick of waiting in line.

On Sunday night, after a weekend celebration at the ski area including a 50-foot-long cake shared with skiers and riders to celebrate its 50th year of operation, Patenaude, standing with his wife, Sally, thanked the gathering for being part of the success.

"People always used to say, 'well how did you enter this business?' Well we used to ski, my family skied back in the '50s. And they got pretty busy at Mount Sunapee. They only had one chair, a single chair and I guess the people in Massachusetts discovered the place and the lift lines got to be more than an hour long. Then the idea came, 'Why not build our own ski area so we don't have to wait in line?'" he said.

Thus began a labor of love for the Hopkinton couple.

Over the years, the ski area has grown and adapted to the times, by installing snowmaking on every trail, lighting the slopes at night and focusing on teaching kids how to ski and snowboard.

This is a niche that allows Pats to be considered an important part of the industry, a feeder to larger resorts and an integral part of life in New Hampshire in the winter.

"This year we built a new trail and we put up this new entrance. It's really a clock tower except we haven't got the clock yet," he said.

Patenaude also credited much of the work and improvements to longtime Pats Peak general manager Chris Blomback.